Eastbound and Down
Welcome back! Well, it's time for round 2 of our #vanlife summer adventures. A few things were different this time around:
-we headed EAST
-we have a dog, Tesla, and she joined us on this year's adventure!
-we had a super tight timeline to reach St. John's, Newfoundland (more on that later)
-there was a pretty special event tied into this year's trip!
Our plan started with needing to get to St. John's for said event. Last year, we left a day after I finished work. That was stressful and maybe not the best idea. This year. we waited three weeks after I was finished work- this too was not the best idea. I think ideally a week or 10 days to get ready would be helpful. Since last year much of the trip was flying by the seat of our pants (#notmystyle), I spent those three weeks attempting not to over plan... However, there may have been a Google Doc with a rough timeline for this trip.
We had 2 days to reach Sydney Nova Scotia in order to catch the ferry. First up. we powered our way to Edmunston New Brunswick. As we were "powering" our way East, not much exciting happened on this leg of the trip... well, our air mattress did go flat that first night.
Edmunston seemed like a nice little town. We stopped into the local adult beverage store to kick off the trip, and of course visited Canadian Tire for a new air mattress the next morning. I had planned to stay at the truck stop, but we ended up finding this perfect spot just behind it. It seemed to be a lookout and hangout point for the locals and no one bothered us. The temperature change surprised us a little, but we were prepared with our Roots sweats!
After picking up the new air mattress, we continued to Sydney. After being disappointed by Quebec and New Brunswicks' lack of cool border signs, we stopped when we reached the Nova Scotian border for a few pictures. We had wanted one in front of each province/territory sign, but as we found out the East Coast, other than NS doesn't do these signs quite like the West!
At the border, we met a young couple travelling with their Burmese Mountain dog. It turned out they were also on the same 11:45 overnight ferry as we were. We chatted about taking the dogs on the ferry and found out they would be leaving theirs in their car, whereas I had booked Tesla into the kennel. We did run into them again at the ferry, but never saw them again! We hope you traveled well and safe! We made it to (North) Sydney with some time to spare. Not wanting to load up our cooler just yet, we stopped into a Subway for dinner, found a park to hang out and let Tesla run around, and took some pictures.
We thought about the fact that when heading for the West, via Canada, it takes 3 days just to get out of Ontario! Heading East, we made it through 3 provinces in 2 days (although Ottawa is right on the border with Quebec). We headed to the ferry around 9:30 and lined up with everyone else. We met another couple heading over to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. They too were leaving their dog in their car.
Remember when I said I didn't want to over plan, well taking the ferry to Newfoundland is something you want to plan as soon as you know your dates. I did book Tesla into the kennel thinking it'd be better to be able to see her than 6 hours of her alone in the van.... I unfortunately did not book the ferry early enough to secure us designated seats or a cabin (which we actually didn't want). This was quite unfortunate as it was an overnight and sleeping would have been very useful.
The ferry was packed! We had never seen anything like it- cars, vans, both pulling trailers, RVs, transport trucks all jammed on their. We were able to secure seats next to one another and in the front row (hello leg room), but it was not ideal for sleeping. I ended up getting several hours of very choppy, on/off sleep, and Justin barely slept at all (and he loves/needs his sleep)!
In the morning, Tesla seemed okay, but not the best. It was very clear that the other dogs in the kennel room were quite stressed and obviously that didn't help her out. She did not get sick throughout the journey, but it seemed she didn't sleep well either. We docked and headed for St. John's. To be clear, this is a 10 hour drive, but we had to make it for that evening. Justin and I decided to split the driving that day since we were so tired. I drove first and did not enjoy that drive. There were sections of road that had some gnarly bumps/potholes, but mostly I was exhausted.
We did make it to St. John's by about 6pm. We found a fenced dog park in the village of Quidi Vidi for Tesla. We also found an amazing campground not too far outside downtown- not something you see a lot of in cities. As predicted, everybody and their dog were on the East Coast and the park was full, so we were left with the "overflow"- basically an open area with a couple other van/truck campers. Ultimately this turned out alright as Tesla was able to explore off leash and there was hardly anyone around. Since we were in definite need of showers so it was worth every penny.
So we made it. It wasn't the most enjoyable/adventurous drive, but we knew we'd be stopping along the way when we headed back across Newfoundland. We hope you'll stick around to read about the rest of our East Coast vanlife adventure!
-we headed EAST
-we have a dog, Tesla, and she joined us on this year's adventure!
-we had a super tight timeline to reach St. John's, Newfoundland (more on that later)
-there was a pretty special event tied into this year's trip!
 |
| So much energy! Let's get this show on the road. |
Our plan started with needing to get to St. John's for said event. Last year, we left a day after I finished work. That was stressful and maybe not the best idea. This year. we waited three weeks after I was finished work- this too was not the best idea. I think ideally a week or 10 days to get ready would be helpful. Since last year much of the trip was flying by the seat of our pants (#notmystyle), I spent those three weeks attempting not to over plan... However, there may have been a Google Doc with a rough timeline for this trip.
We had 2 days to reach Sydney Nova Scotia in order to catch the ferry. First up. we powered our way to Edmunston New Brunswick. As we were "powering" our way East, not much exciting happened on this leg of the trip... well, our air mattress did go flat that first night.
Edmunston seemed like a nice little town. We stopped into the local adult beverage store to kick off the trip, and of course visited Canadian Tire for a new air mattress the next morning. I had planned to stay at the truck stop, but we ended up finding this perfect spot just behind it. It seemed to be a lookout and hangout point for the locals and no one bothered us. The temperature change surprised us a little, but we were prepared with our Roots sweats!
After picking up the new air mattress, we continued to Sydney. After being disappointed by Quebec and New Brunswicks' lack of cool border signs, we stopped when we reached the Nova Scotian border for a few pictures. We had wanted one in front of each province/territory sign, but as we found out the East Coast, other than NS doesn't do these signs quite like the West!
 |
| Matching beanies- it's a thing |
At the border, we met a young couple travelling with their Burmese Mountain dog. It turned out they were also on the same 11:45 overnight ferry as we were. We chatted about taking the dogs on the ferry and found out they would be leaving theirs in their car, whereas I had booked Tesla into the kennel. We did run into them again at the ferry, but never saw them again! We hope you traveled well and safe! We made it to (North) Sydney with some time to spare. Not wanting to load up our cooler just yet, we stopped into a Subway for dinner, found a park to hang out and let Tesla run around, and took some pictures.
 |
| North Sydney, NS |
 |
| Photo Credit: Justin Walker |
We thought about the fact that when heading for the West, via Canada, it takes 3 days just to get out of Ontario! Heading East, we made it through 3 provinces in 2 days (although Ottawa is right on the border with Quebec). We headed to the ferry around 9:30 and lined up with everyone else. We met another couple heading over to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. They too were leaving their dog in their car.
The ferry was packed! We had never seen anything like it- cars, vans, both pulling trailers, RVs, transport trucks all jammed on their. We were able to secure seats next to one another and in the front row (hello leg room), but it was not ideal for sleeping. I ended up getting several hours of very choppy, on/off sleep, and Justin barely slept at all (and he loves/needs his sleep)!
 |
| Sunrise over Newfoundland |
In the morning, Tesla seemed okay, but not the best. It was very clear that the other dogs in the kennel room were quite stressed and obviously that didn't help her out. She did not get sick throughout the journey, but it seemed she didn't sleep well either. We docked and headed for St. John's. To be clear, this is a 10 hour drive, but we had to make it for that evening. Justin and I decided to split the driving that day since we were so tired. I drove first and did not enjoy that drive. There were sections of road that had some gnarly bumps/potholes, but mostly I was exhausted.
We did make it to St. John's by about 6pm. We found a fenced dog park in the village of Quidi Vidi for Tesla. We also found an amazing campground not too far outside downtown- not something you see a lot of in cities. As predicted, everybody and their dog were on the East Coast and the park was full, so we were left with the "overflow"- basically an open area with a couple other van/truck campers. Ultimately this turned out alright as Tesla was able to explore off leash and there was hardly anyone around. Since we were in definite need of showers so it was worth every penny.
 |
| Nothing like a purple table to brighten up doing dishes- Pippy Park- St. John's NL |
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